Technology enables radiologists to read CT on Web

A new teleradiography method is enabling radiologists at Somerset Hospital to provide faster reports on trauma victims.

Dr. Thomas Anderson, medical director of the radiology department, said teleradiography has been around for many years, but the way it is done now is new.

A computerized axial tomography scan, called a CT scan, is an x-ray procedure which combines many x-ray images with the aid of a computer to generate a cross-section and, if needed, 3-D images of the body.

During the day, radiologists are at the hospital to see the scans. Previously, if someone was injured in an accident after radiologists have gone home for the day, the diagnostic scans were transmitted to the radiologist's home by a phone line similar to a fax machine.

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That is a slower process, he said. For a head CT scan, it would take 15 minutes for the complete scan to reach him. If the radiologist were to have to go to the hospital to see the scans, it would take time to drive there.

Now, the images are sent to a Web server. The radiologist is called and he goes to the server and calls up all the images immediately.

"It takes less than a minute to have them all," Anderson said. "It is a much faster means and the quality is much better. Then I call the emergency room or send a fax report. That gives the emergency room physician the information he needs to make decisions faster."

There are security measures in place so no one else can get in to see the scans. The new system cost $38,000.

"This is mainly for after hours coverage of the emergency room," he said. "When someone has been seriously injured in an accident, it is important that the physicians have the report quickly to make the decision on treatment or to transfer that person by helicopter."